(A beautiful Autumn day at Storm King with my Malaysian friend, Kokyat. Please click on his images in the story to enlarge them.)
Above, Kokyat’s photo of the five stone columns which loom over the fields of Storm King; they were once part of the veranda of Danskammer, Edward Armstrong’s 1834 mansion which stood above the Hudson River north of Newburgh, NY.
The pillars were salvaged when the mansion (above) was torn down and they eventually came to be a permanent part of the Storm King property. On our visit to the site yesterday, I was particularly intrigued by these Ionic columns which lend an ancient air to the otherwise very 20th-century feel of the Storm King collection. They preside over this 500-acre junction of nature and art with a timeless beauty and mystery.
Click on each image to enlarge:
Made of weathering steel, Charles Ginnever‘s 1979 Prospect Mountain is one of those works that keeps revealing more and more about itself as you move around it. It looked especially striking against the golden leaves of Autumn.
Eight Positive Trees (1977) by Menashe Kadishman are so unobtrusively placed along the side of the walking path that we nearly passed by; but stopping to investigate we found them delightful and Kokyat took many photos from various perspectives. This is one thing about the art at Storm King: the more time you invest in studying each individual work the greater the reward.
This was a favorite of mine: Ursula von Rydingsvard’s For Paul (1990-1992) which appears to have shot up out of the Earth fully formed. Approaching it, it seemed hewn from stone but is in fact made of wood and graphite. It stands about 14 feet high. All day I was telling Kokyat that I regretted there were so many people around because I wanted to have images of the works without a human presence. He kept saying that having people in the pictures would give a perspective as to their size. He was right. As always.
Alexander Calder’s 1975 The Arch looms up out of the field like a towering Trojan Horse…
…and took on a Darth Vaderish feel when viewed from a different perspective.
The late-afternoon light gave this grove of trees an Impressionistic feeling.
I spent much of the following day looking over the images Kokyat sent me from our Storm King excursion and recalling the pleasure of being with him while he took his time finding the best angles and light.
Above, the ridge at the top end of the Storm King Wall. This construction threads down to the pond, is submerged and then snakes out of the water and up the far hill finally falling to ruin in the forest (photo below). It was one of Kokyat’s favorite aspects of the Storm King landscapes…
Me walking across Maya Lin‘s Wavefield.
My endless gratitude to Kokyat for the images, and for bringing me on this memorable journey north of Manatus.
~ October 2009
Oberon's Glade 